CHAPTER IX.
BERNARDINE PREACHES.
AFTER this, scarcely a day passed but Bernardine went to see Mr.Reffold.
The most inexperienced eye could have known that he was becoming rapidly worse.

Marie, the chambermaid, knew it, and spoke of it frequently to Bernardine.
"The poor lonely fellow!" she said, time after time.
Every one, except Mrs.Reffold, seemed to recognize that Mr.Reffold's days were numbered.

Either she did not or would not understand.

She made no alteration in the disposal of her time: sledging parties and skating picnics were the order of the day; she was thoroughly pleased with herself, and received the attentions of her admirers as a matter of course.

The Petershof climate had got into her head; and it is a well-known fact that this glorious air has the effect on some people of banishing from their minds all inconvenient notions of duty and devotion, and all memory of the special object of their sojourn in Petershof.